Kyle Harrison won *that* trade. Plus: You gotta see Jo Adell’s Jose Canseco moment
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When you have a chance to show ‘em what they missed out on, you can’t do much better than what Kyle Harrison did last night. Plus: Jo Adell’s Jose Canseco moment, the Braves and Carlos Carrasco are redefining the player-team relationship and a hypothetical that could have changed everything in Pittsburgh. I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup!
Revenge: Harrison shows off against former team
It was not yet a year ago — June 15, 2025, to be exact — when Kyle Harrison was traded for the first time. He was warming up in the bullpen, preparing to start that night’s game, when the deal went down — the Giants traded Harrison, Jordan Hicks, James Tibbs III and Jose Bello to the Red Sox in exchange for Rafael Devers. From Andrew Baggarly’s 2025 story:
“Teammates described nobody as more stunned than Harrison, a Concord (Calif.) De La Salle High alum who went from preparing to face the Dodgers to contemplating a cross-country change of scenery. Harrison stayed in the clubhouse till the end of the game and (Giants manager Bob) Melvin was able to take him aside for a brief conversation.”
That trade hasn’t really worked out for anyone. Coming off a stretch in which Devers received MVP votes in five of the previous six seasons, he’s been worth 2.1 bWAR for the Giants since the trade.
But in Boston, it has gone so much worse. Here’s where every player the Red Sox got for Devers is now:
- Tibbs: Hitting .321 (1.075) with 17 home runs in 55 Triple-A games … in Oklahoma City. He was traded to the Dodgers for Dustin May (who departed for St. Louis in free agency).
- Hicks: Posted an 8.20 ERA in Boston, and was then traded to the White Sox for Gage Zeihl, who is 1-2 with a 5.54 ERA in eight starts in Double-A Portland.
- Bello: The only player from the trade package still with the organization, the 21-year-old is 0-2 in eight games (five starts) with 21 strikeouts and 13 walks in 26 2/3 innings in Low A.
- Harrison: This is the doozy. Harrison was traded to the Brewers in a six-player deal headlined by Caleb Durbin, who is hitting .186 (.538 OPS) for the Red Sox.
Harrison, meanwhile, has been a revelation in Milwaukee. Last night, facing the Giants team that first traded him, the 24-year-old southpaw struck out 12 over 5 2/3 innings, allowing just one run. He’s 7-1 this year with a 1.57 ERA.
Alongside Jacob Misiorowski, he’s headlining a rotation that has the Brewers soaring yet again, leading the NL Central at 37-21.
The Giants (23-38) and Red Sox (25-34) are in last place in their respective divisions.
Middle Relief: What if the Pirates traded Skenes?
In this week’s mailbag with Chad Jennings, the prompt to readers was “What if …?”
What if the Pirates hadn’t hung up the phone on the Yankees’ proposed Paul Skenes offer? Cam Schlittler would be crushing it in Pittsburgh. Spencer Jones would be duking it out with Oneil Cruz for both the strikeout record and the first to 30 home runs. And George Lombard Jr. would likely be taking reps at 3B in AAA to soon join the MLB club and have the youngest and highest upside right side of the infield arguably in the NL. It’s hard not to dream of that as a Pirates fan. — MA S.
Honestly, this is the kind of question we were expecting.
If you’re confused by the premise of this hypothetical, it comes from a report in the New York Post saying the Yankees “were prepared to offer four top prospects last July” in a potential deal for Pirates ace Paul Skenes. The prospects involved were not identified, but the report did note that Cam Schlittler, Spencer Jones, George Lombard Jr. and Carlos Lagrange might have been the best prospect package the Yankees could have put together at that time.
It’s a fascinating “what if” for this season, because Schlittler and Skenes have been remarkably similar this year. Heading into last night’s start, Schlitter’s strikeout rate, walk rate and WHIP were almost identical to Skenes’. Schlittler had the better ERA, but Skenes had a better expected ERA.
One-for-one, I imagine every executive would still prefer Skenes over Schlittler, but in the short term, the hypothetical trade also would have sent some high-upside bats to the Pirates — would Jones have replaced Marcell Ozuna at DH by now? — and given Schlittler’s incredible start to the season, the Pirates might not have skipped a beat in the rotation. Can’t blame Pirates fans, especially those who assume Skenes is going to leave eventually, for actually finding a Skenes trade they might have liked.
Of course, Skenes to the Bronx also would have brought back some of that we-get-whoever-we-want swagger to the Yankees, and who knows how Skenes would have reacted and performed on that stage? Would having Skenes (and a thinner farm system) have pushed the Yankees to spend differently this winter? Would it have given that team an aura of inevitability, like the Dodgers? It’s the kind of blockbuster that ripples, even when it’s hypothetical.
The full what-if mailbag is available for you here.
Heads Up: Jo Adell’s Canseco moment
Everyone was thinking it the moment the ball bounced off Jo Adell’s head and over the fence: Oh, he Jose Canseco’d it.
But the first name that came to mind for me was Nick Solak.
Solak was the hitter the last time I remember Adell doing something similar. This was back in 2020, and Solak hit a ball that hit Adell’s glove at juuuuust the right angle to bounce up and over the wall. It was — like the two bonk-heavy plays above — initially ruled to be a home run, but a later scoring change reversed that call. It was deemed to be a four-base error.
(Why neither of these was ruled to be a four-base error is beyond me. If such a thing exists, it seems like doing a header would trigger it, no?)
What a year for Adell. It was just a couple of months ago he was robbing three home runs in a 1-0 win. Now I’ve made a GIF of him beside Canseco. What a world.
Oh right, and the Angels lost 8-2 to the Rockies and now hold the worst record in the sport, at 23-39. Their best baseball is in front of them.
Do A Little Dance: Carlos Carrasco and the rotating door
If you know the name Carlos Carrasco, it might be from 2017, when he won 18 games in Cleveland and finished fourth in AL Cy Young voting. Or it might be from the time he beat leukemia. Or when he ate pizza every day for 90 days straight.
Well, here’s the latest plot twist in his story: Carrasco, 39, and the Braves are engaged in a creative bit of roster juggling. Take a look at this list of transactions:
4/23/26: Contract selected, called up to Braves
4/29/26: Designated for assignment
5/1/26: Elected free agency
5/1/26: Signed minor-league deal with Braves
5/2/26: Contract selected, called up to Braves
5/5/26: DFA’d again
5/7/26: Elected free agency
5/8/26: Signed minor-league deal with Braves
5/21/26: Contract selected, called up to Braves
5/29/26: DFA’d again
5/31/26: Elected free agency
6/1/26: Signed minor-league deal with Braves
6/2/26: Contract selected, called up to Braves
If you’re keeping track, that’s four calls to the big leagues, sandwiched around three DFAs and micro-stints in free agency.
So why are they going through this dance? Part of it is that players with that much service time (Carrasco has over 13 years) can’t simply be optioned to the minor leagues. The reason that’s in the CBA is to ensure that a player with that much experience can’t be stashed in the minor leagues while a better job might await elsewhere.
No such opportunity seems to be there for Carrasco right now, though. Each time he’s been DFA’d, he has cleared waivers, freeing him up to re-sign with Atlanta before he even gets his bags packed.
More Braves: Jesús Cano tells us about Dominic Smith’s rebirth in Atlanta after signing a minor-league deal this spring.
Handshakes and High Fives
As the tributes came in around the league yesterday for Lou Gehrig Day, I really thought Jake Mintz at Yahoo Sports did a brilliant job with this story on Sarah Langs. Langs has been battling ALS for years, but it has not stopped her from being the best in the business at finding real-time oddities and statistical nuggets from around the league.
Aaron Judge’s recent struggles might make sense now that we know he has a bone bruise in his ribs. Even he isn’t sure how it happened, though.
Trajekt Arc pitching machines have been used mostly to help hitters. Can they also help catchers improve their grasp of ABS challenges?
A trio of Guardians rookies has invented a new stat, though I’m not sure how they quantify xDAWG.
It wasn’t a walk-off, but the Mariners’ eighth consecutive win ended on this highlight-reel play by Colt Emerson.
Astros closer Josh Hader has finally returned from the IL.
Most-clicked in our last Windup: The ol’ 3-6-3-6 double play we hadn’t seen in these parts since 1972.
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